Here’s why your trip to Artist Point will take a little longer
Mount Baker Highway will be closed just east of the Bellingham city limits for the next several months, creating a long detour for late-season snow sports enthusiasts, summer hikers and backpackers.
It’s part of an $8.8 million Washington State Department of Transportation project to widen a culvert under the roadway at Squalicum Creek, to allow easier passage for migrating salmon.
Statewide efforts to boost stream flow are part of a 2013 court ruling that said the state must protect salmon runs under treaties with its Indigenous people.
A contract for the project hasn’t been awarded and details aren’t final, said WSDOT spokeswoman R. B. McKeon.
“Roughly, we expect this to begin in May and end in November,” McKeon told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
An online description of the project shows that Mount Baker Highway — called Sunset Drive in the Bellingham city limits and known officially as State Route 542 — will be closed between Britton Road and Noon Road.
A detour will send drivers on Hannegan Road and East Smith Road.
Local roads within the detour area will be open during construction and additional closures will restrict travel on Kelly, Van Wyck and Noon roads to discourage shortcuts.
No data was immediately available from WSDOT regarding daily traffic counts on Mount Baker Highway at Britton Road.
But Sunset Drive east of Orleans Street carried 25,000 cars daily in 2007, according to the Whatcom Council of Governments.
Mount Baker Highway is the primary route into the North Cascades for those heading to the Mt. Baker Ski Area, Artist Point and dozens of trailheads and campgrounds.
